In the Japanese traditional culture, there is a principle of aesthetics describing beauty as being imperfect and incomplete… That’s the wabi-sabi (侘寂) aesthetic, a uniquely Japanese point of view that can be applied in many art forms, from poetry and music to garden design and pottery.

A wabi-sabi tea bowl is simple, rough, modest, with asperities and imperfect shapes, but nonetheless beautiful, like the one in today’s photo…